Cydney Payton Moves On

MCA Denver Director Cydney Payton

I’ve followed Cydney Payton’s career for a number of years. It’s always incredible, and perhaps it shouldn’t be, but it is, when a woman of such talent is recognized for her visionary attributes and celebrated.

Cydney Payton took the Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver from a collection of exhibits housed in a converted fish market to a stunning edifice designed by Tanzanian-born British minimalist architect David Adjaye.

As director of the Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver (MCA Denver), Cydney Payton depended on private fundraising (though she admits to first courting the public fundraising angle), a pragmatic switch in financing which not only came more naturally to the museum but also allowed for the eventual showing of more “risky” exhibitions thanks to its private funding.

Cydney Payton’s intricate direction of Denver’s landmark Contemporary Art Museum is illustrated best in the small tweaks she made to her processes. Her attention to detail and consideration of all aspects of a situation make her a remarkable director and an impressive leader in the art world.
It is precisely her sensible realism and practical moves in the art world which separates Cydney Payton from the rest of the pack. When shopping for architects for the new museum building, Cydney insisted that each of the finalists present a public lecture to the community, rather than the traditional closed-door presentations typically requested in these types of deliberative processes. By keeping the community involved, the museum’s planning had a far greater impact, and the greater Denver community felt valued and involved. MCA Denver was also recognized for its environmentally-conscious, progressive design.

In October of this year, Cydney Payton will resign. I hope she will retire to a tropical island somewhere and enjoy her success, but odds are she will probably keep working, subtly tweaking the art world, making it better and better and better.